OT - Gas to hit 4.00

"Matthew Frederico" <mfrederico at gmail.com> writes:
> So, Kimball - I agree with your earlier notion. It's not us changing the
> world, its us changing ourselves. Once that happens, the world will
> ineveitibly change. And it takes people like you, me, David and everybody
> else who are making sensible decisions to make change happen. All we have
> to do is continue to be examples, help where we can and teach our children.
As much as I agree with the path we must take, I can't agree with the
outcome you predict. If all of us on the list change ourselves and
teach our children that way, the world will continue in its course.
If we view money as an abstraction of human effort, then there is more
effort focused on moving the world in its current direction than any
group could hope to offset. The inertia is mind-bogglingly huge. The
combination of free market, democracy, and free media makes this so.
Those with money control the media through their ability to buy
airtime on the market. They use the media to advertise their products
and promote consumer culture and spending, so they can make more
money. Consumers are influenced, knowingly or not, directly or not,
by advertising such that they feel they need to aquire more stuff.
This need, along with direct monetary influence, makes the government
bend to the needs of the market. It's all interconnected, and it's a
relentless force that permeates our culture. Love of democracy and
capitalism runs strong in conservatism, and I have a great respect for
them as well, but I can't help but believe that they're a big part of
why our society is such a mess right now. Free market + democracy +
mass media seem to inevitably lead to where we're at.
Money and status are the only truly institutionalized values in our
consumer culture, because they're the values that drive the economic
machine that is the heart of our nation. As long as that machine is
running, any effort to promote other values will be drowned in noise.
--Levi